2 I 8 
Lotus. 
“ He with salute of deference due, 
A lotus to his forehead prest; 
She raised her mirror to his view, 
Then turned it inward to her breast.” 
Moore also alludes to the poetical legends of the Hindoo 
youthful God of Love being first seen “ seated on a lotus- 
flower.” He tells us of Selim, that 
“ He little knew how well the boy 
Can float upon a river’s streams, 
Lighting them with his smile of joy ; 
As bards have seen him in their dreams 
Down the blue Ganges, laughing, glide 
Upon a rosy lotus wreath, 
Catching new lustre from the tide 
That with his image shone beneath.” 
The floral home of this flower, consecrated in India to love, 
is thus spoken of by one well acquainted with the Ganges and 
its banks : “ The rich and luxuriant clusters of the lotus float in 
quick succession upon the silvery current. Nor is it the sacred 
lotus alone which embellishes the wavelets of the Ganges : 
large white, yellow^ and scarlet flowers pay an equal tribute ; 
and the prows of the numerous native vessels navigating the 
stream are garlanded by long wreaths of the most brilliant 
daughters of the parterre. India may be called a Paradise of 
flowers : the most beautiful lilies grow spontaneously upon 
the sandy shores of the rivers, and from every projecting cliff 
some shrub dips its flowers in the wave below.” 
Jayadeva alludes to the blue lotus when he sings, “Whose 
wanton eyes resemble blue water-lilies agitated by the breeze;” 
and Moore follows up the simile thus: 
“ His breath is the soul of flowers like these, 
And his floating eyes — oh ! they resemble 
Blue water-lilies, when the breeze 
Is making the stream around them tremble.” 
Poor Edgar Poe did not omit to notice Love’s floral cradle, 
and in his most musical, most melancholy rhyme, sang of 
“The nelumbo-bud that floats for ever 
With Indian Cupid down the holy river.” 
And, in his beautiful Paradise, “ A 1 Aaraaf,” places the 
